I am new to real estate investing and thinking of starting off by doing a "house hack" via renting out the unused basement as a short term rental (AirBNB, Vrbo etc) in my single family home which is used as primary residence.

Quote from @Jagan Reddy: Cat urine is the most common destroyer of rentals.

For us, we are looking and doing LTR or MTR furnished room rentals but its very operationally intensive.

You are not going to get this knowledge by reading a guide online or asking the question in a forum.  

But it's important to note that rental and retail figures are still ahead of 2019 levels.On the real estate front, prices are holding steady, though we’re seeing an increase in inventory.

I also converted the other side of the property (it's a functioning duplex) into an Airbnb / Short Term Rental.

This would probably help since the next one I build I could immediately put for sale and do a short term rental while it sells.I have many years of construction experience and have also done a fix and flip, in addition to building ground up construction, as well as 10 years of entrepreneurial experience running a paddle board rental company... i have a BS in Physics from Georgia Tech , a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from UT Austin, and did Postdoctoral research using Computational Engineering where I designed, manufactured, and tested a shock mitigating metamaterial...

Pittsburgh is a popular market for house hacking and multifamily investing due to its affordability, strong rental demand, and diverse urban and suburban neighborhoods.

I was interested in buying rental units, with the hopes of maybe passing on to my kids. 

Prior to anyone submitting an application ensure you share your rental criteria clearly ( i.e. credit score, your preference on acceptance of rental collections, evictions, felonies, misdemeanors, pets etc. ) as well as sharing any additional charges ( i.e. monthly pet rent, pet deposit(s), security deposits, admin fees etc. ) people unqualified will usually "walk" as this stage and that is where you will save time. 3.